I stood at the bottom of the steps and bit my lip. If the housekeeper decided to come down these stairs, there would be no hiding. There would also be no explaining why on earth I was on the opposite end of the ship that I was supposed to be on. Not to mention, why hadn’t my supposed coworkers ever heard of me?

I was in too deep to go back now. I could make up a story about needing to use a restroom and getting lost. I could play up the whole golly-gee-willikers-this-is-a-mighty-big-boat thing. Maybe she would believe me. Maybe she would at least believe me long enough for me to get away before she called the police.

But I didn’t want to get away. And I did want the police to come. Or at least one particular officer.

I pulled out my phone and fired off a quick text, hoping it would go through from the depths of a ship.

Party at Luna’s tonight. Be there or be square. I’ll be—I paused, thinking. Where would I be? around, I finished.

I sent the text, chewed my nail, and wrote another.

Actually, don’t be square. Just be there. Or here. Or not. Whatever.

Half a second after sending that one, I winced, wishing I hadn’t done so. I sounded like a confused dork even to myself. I opened my text box one last time.

I’ll find you.

There. That would be enough. Hopefully. I wasn’t exactly sure he would still be willing to do something like this for me. I wasn’t exactly sure I would blame him if he wasn’t.

The texts sent, I pushed my phone back into my pocket and started climbing stairs, hurrying, but trying to keep my footsteps as quiet as possible. I passed the main deck, figuring that would be the most likely place for the housekeeper to be hanging out, and pressed on to the upper deck.

I came out in a little hallway. On my left I could see a dining room, so filled with shining silver and crystal it hurt my eyes. On my right, I could see . . . the ocean. The entire room was made of windows. Just as there had been couches and tables and candles at Blue Yonder, so were there here. Probably a hundred people could sit in the lounge area and stare out at the water or step onto the small deck outside for a dip in the glass-walled pool, and probably tonight there would be.